Critic Reviews
Mixed
Based on 9 reviews on
"Levy's all-access Facebook reflects the reputational swan dive of its subject. . . . The result is evenhanded and devastating."--San Francisco Chronicle
"[Levy's] evenhanded conclusions are still damning."--Reason
"[He] doesn't shy from asking the tough questions."--The Washington Post
"Reminds you the HBO show Silicon Valley did not have to reach far for its satire."--NPR.org
The definitive history, packed with untold stories, of one of America's most controversial and powerful companies: Facebook
As a college sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network.
Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from its first, modest iteration. In light of recent controversies surrounding election-influencing "fake news" accounts, the handling of its users' personal data, and growing discontent with the actions of its founder and CEO--who has enormous power over what the world sees and says--never has a company been more central to the national conversation.
Millions of words have been written about Facebook, but no one has told the complete story, documenting its ascendancy and missteps. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life, or the imperative of this book to document the unchecked power and shocking techniques of the company, from growing at all costs to outmaneuvering its biggest rivals to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram, to developing a platform so addictive even some of its own are now beginning to realize its dangers.
Based on hundreds of interviews from inside and outside Facebook, Levy's sweeping narrative of incredible entrepreneurial success and failure digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.
Jessica Lessin is founder of The Information.
We're launching a book club and author series for @theinformation subscribers. Thrilled @StevenLevy is first up to join us to discuss his new book on Facebook. https://t.co/kehvP0aXSX
As featured on CNN, Inc and Forbes, BookAuthority is the world's leading site for book recommendations by thought leaders and experts
Greetings @StevenLevy, "Facebook" is featured in BookAuthority's list of best Silicon Valley books of all time! https://bookauthority.org/books/best-silicon-valley-books?t=199sjr&s=author&book=0735213151
Tech Analyst & Advisor ex Apple Marketing Director, Gartner Analyst, & VC. Fan of The Oxford Comma
As far as I know @StevenLevy is the only journalist (or pretty much anyone) that got more than Ms. Sandberg's 30 minute meeting allocation. He got two hours. Read his book to learn more. Facebook: The Inside Story https://www.amazon.com/dp/0241297958/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_8RCTEGC69JV8XM62R8SN
"The value of this book lies in its putting together all the pieces of Facebook's privacy troubles, algorithms, and the Cambridge Analytica affair."--Library Journal
"Steven Levy, who reported [on Facebook] over three years, is one of the best writers about tech, period. His access--through the company and around it--is impressive."--The Information, February Book Club Pick
"I highly recommend this . . . It is probably the best read on a high-tech big wig that is changing history that I've read in a long, long, long time. I heartily and highly recommend it. Bring some popcorn with you when you read it."--Neil Cavuto on Cavuto: Coast to Coast
"[Levy] consistently demonstrates how he's driven by the facts rather than by any philosophical or political agenda. And that's exactly why, once Levy has layered on so many new facts about Facebook, its principals, and its various lapses and betrayals, piling on the details from hundreds of interviews, putting all the pieces of every part of Facebook's story into one place, his most evenhanded conclusions are still damning. . . . What all Facebook's critics, and the tech industry's critics, will have in common is this: Going forward, we all will be citing stuff we learned from Levy's Facebook: The Inside Story."--Reason
"Levy portrays a tech company where no one is taking responsibility for what it has unleashed. . . . The book closes with a recognition that Facebook is bulldozing ahead with new innovations--from Facebook dating to its Libra digital currency project--while Zuckerberg continues to shrug off any ethical queries about his past behavior."--Financial Times
"In Facebook: The Inside Story, Levy turns his massively insightful gaze to the trajectory of Facebook from its birth, its dizzying growth, and its embattled present, when its reputation is extensively scarred. . . . All in all, Levy capably takes us into FB's office, and into the mind-sets of its engineers. He does so in a brilliantly readable narrative. Indeed, Levy's expertise at narrative nonfiction--the use of scenes, dialogue, and other techniques, to create a story on the page--is ample, and it shows in the smooth and pacy flow of this book; as does his ability to go beyond bits, bytes, and balance-sheets to map the mind-spaces of the techies behind Facebook, their ambitions, creative impulses, greed, and desire to succeed. . . . One of the (numerous) merits of reading this book: it makes you think about how your online self and networks are sculpted, at least in part, by people sitting continents away, in what ways, how the online self is grafted onto the flesh-and-blood one, and how the online self is manipulated, tweaked, even exploited. Take a bow, Steven Levy."--MoneyControl.com
"Wired editor Steven Levy uses tales from Zuckerberg's early life, pages from his handwritten journals, and encounters with company execs to add texture and color to the familiar Facebook origin story. He creates an intimate portrait of Zuckerberg's competitive nature and goals and how they have informed the company's zealous pursuit of growth over the last decade. It's a timely probe into the tech company's motivations around data privacy, disinformation, and corporate responsibility."--Mashable
"Steven Levy charts the novelty, the thrusting, and the hubris of Facebook, which in many ways reflects the personality of its still wholly dominant founder. He presents some extraordinary facts in a racy and riveting mainly chronological narrative."--The Critic